Primary tuberculosis of components of the chest wall is a rare entity. Involvement of skeletal muscle by tuberculosis without any primary focus is also rare. Here, we report a case of tuberculosis of chest wall without pulmonary or bone involvement, that invaded into the pleural space leading to a massive pleural effusion.

A 60-year-old female who was known to have rheumatoid arthritis for the preceding two-and-half years presented with difficulty in breathing associated with chest pain over the right hemithorax of two months duration. She was found to have a right-sided mild to moderate pleural effusion; there was no evidence of pleural thickening. The pleural fluid was pale yellow in appearance and diagnostic work-up confirmed it to be a pseudochylous pleural effusion. The present case highlights the rare occurrence of pseudochylothorax without pleural thickening as a complication of rheumatoid arthritis...

Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM) occurs secondary to the cystic adenomatous over-growth of terminal bronchioles, which results in the secondary inhibition of alveolar growth. In most of the cases, respiratory distress is the presenting feature during the neonatal period. In about 90% of patients, recurrent respiratory infections necessitating chest imaging reveal CCAM before the age of two years. We describe here the occurrence of congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of right lung in a 12-year-old girl presenting with haemoptysis and hypovolaemic shock...

Burkitt’s lymphoma is a sub-group of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of high-grade with an aggressive clinical course and is composed of diffuse, small and non-cleaved, undifferentiated malignant cells of lymphoid origin. Dennis Burkitt first described this entity in 1956 in equatorial Africa. It is one of the fastest growing cancers in humans with a growth fraction close to 100%. It commonly occurs in children and young adults, with frequent involvement of bone marrow and central nervous system. These are considered to be medical emergencies and require immediate diagnostic and therapeutic intervention...

Maintaining the high oxygen demands and bronchial hygiene of critically ill patients with advanced respiratory failure is often difficult. We describe three such cases with advanced respiratory failure where a modification of conventional transtracheal oxygenation was used successfully. This method provided the added advantage of being more cost-effective and helping in easy bronchial toileting.

We describe five cases of pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis (PAM) from North India with characteristic radiological and histopathological features. All patients were symptomatic with variable severity and duration of the symptoms and one patient developed cor-pulmonale during the course of follow-up. Diagnosis of PAM was suspected on the basis of classical sand-storm appearance on radiological examination and confirmed by transbronchial lung biopsy in four of the five cases. Apart from other features, presence of pleural and pericardial calcification in one case makes this discussion valuable...

Miliary multi-focal bilateral pulmonary adenocarcinoma with lepidic predominant pattern is an unusual morphological presentation and is seen in females who are non-smokers. This gross morphology can be confused with infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, histoplasmosis or with pulmonary metastasis.

Ever since the invention of the flexible bronchoscope, perhaps no other innovation in the field of interventional pulmonology has caused so much excitement the world over, as the convex probe endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA). While it took over a decade from 1992 to 2004 for the radial EBUS to evolve into the commercial convex probe EBUS scope, another exciting decade has gone by with the technology being thoroughly researched and appraised. The current evidence suggests that EBUS-TBNA can replace mediastinoscopy as the first investigation in the mediastinal staging of lung cancer...

BACKGROUND: Pleural fluid loculations due to complicated parapneumonic effusion (CPE), empyema, tubercular effusion and traumatic hemothorax can be managed either by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or intrapleural ibrinolytic therapy (IPFT). The former is more invasive, not easily available and is also more expensive. On the other hand, IPFT is less invasive, cheaper, easily accessible and if used early, in loculated pleural collections, break loculations and early pleural peel, thereby facilitating pleural space drainage...

BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics continue to fuel each other and with dual infections with these two deadly diseases on the rise, it becomes imperative to devise effective HIV-TB collaborative strategies. The present study was designed to evaluate the existing HIV-TB cross-referral mechanism at an urban health centre; to determine HIV sero-prevalence among pulmonary TB patients referred from chest clinic to the integrated counselling and testing centre (ICTC); and to evaluate the TB suspects referred from ICTC to the chest clinic for a possible TB aetiology...

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary function is one of the important physiological measures that is known to be affected during the changes in the altitude. There is dearth of literature on changes in the pulmonary function variables in the cold climate conditions of Antarctica. We carried out spirometry before, during and after one year stay at Antarctica in members of the Indian expedition. METHODS: Spirometry was carried out on 23 members of the XXVI Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica at baseline, after six months of expedition and at the end of one year, using standard guidelines...

Unilateral opaque lung with ipsilateral mediastinal shift is an uncommon cause of respiratory distress in newborn which can be found on simple radiograph of the chest. Pulmonary agenesis is a rare cause of unilateral opaque lung in the newborn. Nearly 50% cases of pulmonary agenesis are associated with other congenital defects including cardiovascular, skeletal, gastrointestinal or genitourinary systems. We report an infant with agenesis of the right lung associated with other congenital anomalies.

A 24-year-old female presented with complaints of distension of abdomen, lower limb swelling and shortness of breath. On examination, she had bilateral pedal oedema, tender mild hepatomegaly, bilateral pleural effusion and ascites. She had received treatment on lines of chronic liver disease, congestive heart failure but did not manifest any improvement. Laboratory investigations including haemogram, echocardiography and liver function testing were inconclusive. Ultrasonography and computed tomography of abdomen revealed obstruction at the junction of inferior vena cava and hepatic vein with pre-stenotic dilatation confirming the diagnosis of Budd-Chiari syndrome...

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) presenting as lung cancer have been reported rarely from India. The present case describes a possibly primary lung cancer in a non-smoker who presented radiologically as a case of ILD. The possible mechanisms available in the literature are discussed.